On the news that SOE will be raising the price of their Station Access one-price-for-all-games pass from $25 to $30 per month, and since I currently only play one of their games (EverQuest 2) on a regular basis, and since I am paying for three accounts (my two and my son’s), there’s no compelling reason to pay all this extra for no reason.
Like Cuppycake, The Ancient Gaming Noob and others, those of us who were thinking of getting heavily into Vanguard or were hoping to try out Gods and Heroes for free on Station Access are really out of luck.
SOE’s three big Station Access titles are EverQuest, EverQuest 2 and Vanguard. (They have Matrix Online, SWG and Planetside as well, but I’m just talking about the fantasy MMOs, really) These are, essentially, the same game. If you like Fantasy MMOs and aren’t playing WoW, you’re probably playing one of these (or maybe WoW and one of these).
The economics of Station Access now make sense only if you’re playing three of the games from the list, where before just having more than one saved you money. Who the heck has that kind of time?
I already know I will be playing Lord of the Rings Online, and quite possibly will try Conan (hated the macho bravado of the Conan stories themselves, but the game sounds cool) and Warhammer Online (might be cool to give PvP a shot again), and later Star Trek Online. None of these games will be on Station Access (well, given Gods and Heroes is being published by SOE (although it may not be a part of Station Access), and given that Perpetual is developing both G&H and ST:O, so events may work out to having ST:O on Station Access).
So until they get another non-Fantasy MMO that I actually want to play (G&H possibly, ST:O if it comes to Station Access, DC Online maybe), I will be cancelling.
When it was “If you play more than one of our games, you should get Station Access”, it made sense. Now that it’s “If you play three or more of our games”… well, last night I started deleting characters from my EQ2 accounts.
5 thoughts on “Goodbye, Station Access”
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Thankies for the link =) I never thought of the possibility of Gods and Heroes possibly being on Station Pass. But nonetheless – really really bad move on SOE’s part =/
Hmm I didn’t even realize that with Gods and Heroes. I do plan on playing God’s and Hero’s hopefully if it is good. I am going to be playing warhammer online. Just started a guild for it if you are looking for one:) Conan looks good too, but I don’t know if that will be coming out with Warhammer… and be competition? If not then I will try that, and def will be trying Star Trek online. But yeah 29.99 is high.
What a shame. Sorry this is happening to ya.
LotRO is next for me. Where I go from there depends on how the other games look in open beta. If WAR or Conan are just testosterone-fueled trash-talking gankfests, I’ll skip them. DAoC had what I thought was very civil PvP and I really enjoyed striking deep into enemy territory and then reliving it on the forums (or even getting killed by enemies while peacefully xping was exciting the way DAoC had it).